Condom machines plan sparks row

December 13, 2005

Condom machines plan sparks row in India

12 Dec 2005 08:12:06 GMT

Source: Reuters

By R. Bhagwan Singh

CHENNAI, India, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Plans to install 500 condom

vending machines in the capital of one of India's worst HIV/AIDS-

affected states has angered Muslim groups, which say they will take

to the streets against " condom culture " .

Critics of the plan by the Tamil Nadu government and India's

National Aids Control Organisation to put 500 machines in Chennai

and 1,000 more across the state later say it would degrade women and

corrupt the young.

" We must fight AIDS, but these machines at public places will only

promote sex outside marriage among the younger generation, " said

M.H. Jawahirullah, who heads Tamil Nadu's largest Muslim group, the

Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (Muslim Progressive Party).

" In its AIDS campaign, the government could end up promoting illicit

sex, which will lead to a permissive culture that could boomerang on

the anti-AIDS effort itself. "

The party " wants these machines to go " , he said.

The women's wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind planned to demonstrate

in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu capital, against the machines on Monday.

" This condom culture being propagated by the government can do

nothing towards battling AIDS. On the other hand, it is bound to

further denigrate the status of women and ruin the younger

generation, " convenor Fatheema Jalal told Reuters.

India has more than 5 million HIV/AIDS sufferers, second only to

South Africa. But efforts to combat the spread of the disease have

come up against deeply conservative traditions.

A popular south Indian actress was pelted with sandals, tomatoes and

rotten eggs and hauled before a court in Tamil Nadu for saying

recently it was OK for women to have sex before marriage, as long as

it was safe sex, and that men should not expect their brides to be

virgins.

While rejecting claims by some Muslim leaders that condoms were un-

Islamic, Jawahirullah said his party would also start protests if

the machines were put in place.

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